A woodland garden

It was so nice to see the woodland border thriving, in spring guise, returning from the mountains to the Piedmont in the final stages of relocation.

This was a created woodland spot; it was shallow dry grass beneath a water oak when we bought this house.  And there was no pathway to the front of house, either. We put one in ourselves.

Crested Iris in flower

Now the space is full of Christmas ferns, crested iris, bloodroot, pussy-toes, and green and gold - it's a lovely small drought-tolerant woodland patch.

Lonicera sempervirens flowering on the fence nearby

The bloodroot is reseeding everywhere. Here's a "mama" plant with her babies -- remarkable, seen this afternoon.

A "mama" bloodroot and seedlings

Bloodroot seedlings

I'm delighted to see them flourishing.  They've been a favorite spring wildflower for many years.

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Bloodroot in flower

Coming back to the Piedmont today, I was delighted to see bloodroot in full flower.  I've made so many posts about bloodroot -- it's a favorite early spring flower.  Here's a post from last year.

We planted it in various places around the garden, starting with one plant. Ants have spread the seeds and patches have popped up all over the front woodland border along the front path.  Totally rewarding.

There are a number of large clumps now in the front, along with smaller plants.  Lovely.

It's in flower in the South Carolina Botanical Garden, too. I took this photo late this afternoon.

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

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Native woodland gardens

It was nice this morning to share thoughts about creating native woodland gardens  with an OLLI class (check out OLLI programs if you're in the US -- a great lifelong learning initiative).

It's been a lovely journey to transform lawn to woodland habitat over the last two decades, and we now finally have Christmas ferns, bloodroot, wild ginger, crested iris, green-and-gold, and pussytoes flourishing along our front pathway.

a giant bloodroot

It was all about creating a decent "forest" soil -- more full of humus, a bit deeper, etc. from the shallow, shade-stressed grass that grew there before.

And the water oak that anchors the driveway produces slow-to-break-down leaves -- not the best situation, but eventually they DO turn into humus-rich leaf mulch.

That's what supported the bloodroot expansion!

P.S. See the sidebar for a link to a pdf version of the creating a woodland garden presentation.

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Bloodroot is in flower!

It's such a joy to see the bright white flowers of bloodroot after a long winter.  It's one of our early spring flowering natives, along with hepatica and trout lily.

It's done well in our emerging woodland garden, too.

clumps of bloodroot along the front path

After slowly amending the soil with mulch and leaves, our patch in front of the house is doing well, with companions of Christmas fern, green-and-gold, and pussytoes.

Happily, the large plant (transplanted from a shadier site in back) has been a prolific seed producer, and ants have "planted" new clumps around.  Even the small seedlings (with the abundant rain over the last year) have flourished.

parent with offspring

We now have over 9+ plants in front, including the biggest bloodroot we've ever seen -- testament to how natives in a more benign (garden)
environment can really flourish.

the original parent (transplanted from a shadier spot in the garden)

Bloodroot has been a favorite spring wildflower.

Here are some previous musings over the past 5+ seasons.

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Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

The bloodroot in the oak hickory forest along the Heusel Nature trail (in the botanical garden where I work) is in full flower now.  It's right on time - I usually see Sanguinaria in flower from early to late March, depending on the year.  It's definitely spring here in the Piedmont of South Carolina!

I've posted about bloodroot over the last 5 spring seasons, apparently. 

This was the most impressive plant that I've ever seen:  a happy camper featured in this 2010 post! 

Bloodroot in the front woodland border, March 2010

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